Airtel has commenced its 4G service in the city of Ludhiana in Punjab. This service rollout makes Ludhiana the first city for users to experience 4G service simultaneously on dongles, Wi-Fi-enabled routers and mobile phones. While the dongle and routers are targeted more towards office goers and home users, mobile phones is where the 4G service will be most beneficial.

Interestingly, unlike other regions, Airtel will charge Rs. 49 for USIMs for mobile users. The USIM will come free of cost with the purchase of a dongle or a router that are priced Rs. 1,500 and Rs. 2,500 respectively.

Some of the plans include – Rs. 999/- (for postpaid – mobiles, dongles and routers) and Rs. 995/- (for prepaid mobiles only) that offers 10 GB of 4G data. For postpaid mobile customers, the plans start from as low as Rs. 100.

I guess it was expected but Airtel has given their official word on resumption of the 3G services in non-3G circles. Airtel will now provide 3G service in Haryana, Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala, MPCG (Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh), Gujarat, Kolkata and UP (east) with infrastructure backup from Vodafone and Idea Cellular.

Last week, TDSAT quashed the fine levied by DoT for violating 3G license agreement and claimed Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular did not violate the law and can continue with their 3G intra-circle roaming agreement (ICRA).

RCom last week announced to offer nationwide 3G coverage with the partnership of Aircel and Tata.

Airtel is slowly and gradually expanding its 4G service to various parts of the country. As one of India’s largest cellular operator, Airtel has announced the introduction of the 4G mobile service in Tricity – Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula.

Customers can experience the next-generation technology through live demos in company operated stores or users with select smartphones can upgrade the their existing SIM to a 4G SIM and use the high-speed service right away.

Existing and new prepaid customers can use 4G service by selecting 4G packs of their choice while Airtel offers postpaid customers to customise their plans with myPlan. Like in Bengaluru, data browsing will be on the 4G network while voice calls will be routed through 2G with the CSFB (circuit switched fall back) technology.

Reliance Communications will now offer pan India 3G roaming coverage for all its subscribers. Reliance has struck a strategic Inter-Circle roaming partnership with Tata and Aircel that will allow Reliance customers to enjoy 3G services outside its own 3G circles.

MTNL introduced special 3G data packs to give a taste of what their 3G service is like. They had introduced 3G 22, 3G 76 and 3G 126 data packs that gave a validity of a day, week and 15 days with a decent amount of free data usage – 250MB, 1GB and 1GB respectively.

But it seems MTNL has now lowered the free data usage for the aforementioned plans. The revised data usage is now 100MB if you recharge 3G 22, 350MB for 3G 76 and 600MB 3G 126.

We’re not sure what led MTNL to revise the plans but as a consumer, I’m disappointed.

Airtel today introduced a new add on plan for existing BlackBerry postpaid customers. For a monthly rent of Rs. 299, which is in addition to the regular BlackBerry plan, a user will be able to enjoy 3G service. So in short, if you’re paying Rs. 399, Rs. 599 or Rs. 898 for the BlackBerry plan, you can add this plan to get unlimited usage on the BlackBerry phone at 3G speeds whereas 1GB of free data if you use BlackBerry as a modem.

We recently saw MTS launching its CDMA services in the capital city of Delhi. Today MTS joined the intensifying tariff war by slashing down its STD rate to 1 paisa/sec across all networks. This new tariff is against the earlier 2 paise/sec tariff and would be implemented with immediate effect in the MTS circles of Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Bihar-Jharkhand, Kolkata, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

The official company release said that, “STD will now be one paisa per second or 60 paise per minute (for lifetime) with the added benefit of per second billing. While STD calls from MTS will be charged at 1 paisa/sec, MTS to MTS local calls will be charged at 1 paisa/2 secs.”

Other big operators like Reliance, Airtel, Vodafone and Idea were seen slashing their local and STD tariffs earlier this week. With new operators joining the race, telecom operators are looking at wooing customers with lower tariffs and calling rates.

To add up to the festivity in Andhra Pradesh, IDEA Cellular has introduced three new recharge vouchers branded as Super 50. These recharge vouchers are targeted towards users with varied usage behaviours. Read on to find out what’s in offering –

Global Telecoms Business magazine has published its annual list of 100 business leaders from telecom industry across the world wherein it has ranked Tata Communications’ Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, N Srinath, at number 8 and its Chief Operating Officer, Vinod Kumar, at 60 in its global telecom power list.

The twist is that the magazine ranks Tata Communications N Srinath ahead of Bharti’s Chairman and group CEO, Sunil Mittal in the global telecom power list. Well this doesn’t really comes as a surprise as N Srinath was the sole Indian in last year’s top 10 list. Sunil Bharti Mittal, who is today considered to be one of the most influential man in the Indian telecom industry ranked at number 18.

The other Indians in the top 25 are Punit Garg, President and CEO, Reliance Globalcom (21), and Rajeev Suri, CEO of Nokia Siemens Networks (25).

Vodafone is the newest entrant to offer the per second tariff option, although this option is restricted to the Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh circle only. To adopt to the per second tariff scheme, Existing Vodafone users will have to buy a special recharge voucher priced at Rs 59 which will enable them to make local as well as STD calls across all networks at 1 paisa/sec. This special card is called Bonus Card 59 and comes with an airtime of Rs 40.

People who presently do not use Vodafone can also get this scheme by purchasing a new Vodafone SIM car worth Rs 49 which will be set to this plan by default. The validity of this tariff option will be 365 days post which, users will have to re-purchase the special voucher.